In my mind, I am an amazing runner. So when someone shared a photo of me on facebook, I thought I'd share it on my blog...
Today we had sprint intervals, where the sprints were either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 minutes long and the recovery 1 minute. The catch? We didn't know which interval we were on!
Oooh, this is a struggle! More so because - for me - I can dig down deep at the end and push a little harder. For example, if I am starting to slag from fatigue but in my mind I know that I am almost through a drill, I can find it in myself - usually - to give that little bit more. But in all honesty, when I don't know when that next recovery is coming (or when I know it's a long way off), I save that little bit more in reserve in case I need it down the line. Today, without knowing when the end of the rep would come, I really struggled to dig deep and find that push in me.
I did try to break out of that habit today. I really did. I tried to run every metre as if it were my last before recovery. I started off well in this goal by pacing myself with some slightly faster friends. I endeavoured to stick with them for the duration of the workout. The first few minutes I did just that. Easy! But then I made a mistake. I thought I could push myself just that little bit faster and so I did for one beautiful rep...Only to exhaust myself for subsequent reps. And as my energy depleted I fell behind more and more with each rep.
Discouraged, my mind filled with self-doubt of "you can't keep up with them! Why are you even trying?" And to my disappointment...I listened. Oh, I still worked at a hard pace, but that little bit more remained out of my grasp. Why? Because I listened to the voice of self-doubt and couldn't rationalize it away with the knowledge of being 'almost done'.
But still. If running is a mental game, then overall today I had a decent match.
Total time (including warm-up + cool down): 50.55min
Total distance: 8.18km
Avg pace (including walking recoveries): 6.13min/km
Here's wishing on everyone out there that ability to find that little bit more in them.
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